"Exactly."
"Besides, you're too cute to say no to." He grinned, his hair falling around his forehead and around his ears. He ran his fingers through my hair and around my ear, and then rubbed my earlobe in between his fingers gently. "You're so soft…and amazing. I think you can pretty much do whatever you want to. Just stop being so sweetly naive and start believing that you're as amazing as I think you are.""
"You're the sweetest guy for saying that," I rebutted in a whisper and exhaled all my worries.
"I'm not sweet, I'm being truthful." He kissed my lips and hovered there. "You're strong," he kissed my cheek, "and you're so gonna rock at this running our people thing." He smirked before taking my lips again…and taking his time. He was in no hurry as his movements were almost slow motion. His lips moved from my lips to my neck. I leaned my head back and silently begged him never to stop doing that.
When we rolled so that he was under me, I did the same to him. His neck, though strong and hard from his muscles, was also soft with his smooth skin. His hands moved to my face and took control. He pulled me to his lips. I rested in the 'U' shape of his legs and lifted his shirt a bit to feel his ribs. I counted the hard hills of his abs and he laughed into our kiss and jerked from the tickle.
He was such a…master of kissery. He barked out a laugh at my thought and we giggled together. The thoughts were swirling in both of our minds, and I think we both knew we needed it. We needed to be as close as we could be tonight. So when he rolled and put me under him, his arms holding mine above my head, I knew just what was coming.I let him open the gates of our minds and when the tingles started to zing through my body, I reached up to kiss him and held on with my legs wrapped around his. I can't say it was better than the last time, but it was just as beautiful and I learned so many new things about him from the mutualizing of our minds. He loved watching roller derbies, after everything that happened he still wanted to move to Arizona and be a teacher, and he wanted nothing more right now than to take me away from the palace for good.
I felt his hand moving up the back of my thigh, but his real hands were still holding mine down. In my mind I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on to him as the mutualizing came to an end and the energy ribbons bounced around us before illuminating and expanding in a burst. I remembered to breathe this time and it was loud and ragged. As he settled back down to me with his face in my neck, I felt his harsh breaths against my skin before he rolled to his side and pulled me against him. Our hearts banged against each other and it set a rhythm to remember how to breathe properly. He lifted my chin with a finger and kissed my lips. "I really needed that," he said gruffly.
"Me, too," I said and laughed softly. "Maybe more than you."
"Sweetheart," he chided, making my heart skid. "You'll never need me more than I need you." I didn't argue out loud, though my mind made it clear that he was insane if he thought that was true.
His sigh was filled with happiness and exhaustion as he tucked me under his chin. I pressed my fingers to his heart as we closed our eyes.
I wanted to stay like that all night, but the reason for the camp out began to hit us. We couldn't cure sleep and it was late, and the stars were practically a nightlight.
He pulled my head down to rest on him and weaved his hands through my hair. As we drifted off, Caleb's mind was running with thoughts of his Grandpa and Gran. Mine was full of Bish and Dad and their lady troubles.
A long day, indeed.
~~~
Our peaceful little sleep was interrupted by someone yanking our blanket off. I jerked up, expecting to see Marla and Marcus, but there was no one. I was confused and thought that maybe I imagined it, so I started to lie back down, but instead my body got up from the pallet. I tried to move, tried to do anything, but I wasn't in control of myself. I started walking away from the pallet, and Caleb, so I yelled for him.
"Caleb!"
He jolted up immediately and scrambled after me as he saw me leaving.
"What happened? Did someone come get…" He drifted off as he read my thoughts. He jumped in front of me and grabbed my shoulders to stop me. But my arms tossed him to the wall on my left. I gasped in horror as he slammed into it and slid to the stone walkway.
"Caleb!"
"I'm alright," he groaned and got up again. He came back to me, but didn't touch me. "What is this?"
"I don't know," I shrieked in frustration. "It's like something in me is in control."
He wanted to help me over the rooftops, but didn't want to touch me again. But my body didn't lumber over the ridges, it powered through with purpose that I didn't understand. When we reached the stairwell, we made our way down. The gas sconces were the only light and noise, but when we reached the bottom, my body turned and went down another hallway.
Then, as if I was watching a vision, everything changed. The brick and stone were more colorful, the gas sconces on the wall were lanterns now. And there was a girl in front of us. She was walking in her white, long sleeve nightgown and appeared to be leading the way. I had control of my body now and clung to Caleb who sighed at my being released.
He pulled us to a stop and the girl turned. I thought she was looking at us, like she was a ghost, but then she screamed and ran the other way. We turned behind us and saw a man chasing her with a torch in his hands to light his way. Caleb pulled me behind him as he pressed us to the wall, but the man didn't give us a second glance.
Then I felt the cold settle on me. This was a vision! I looked at Caleb and he understood.
We followed her.
They ran all the way through the halls and tunnels and stairwells until they came to the spiral staircase. I slowed remembering this room. The library that Rodney had taken me to show me the Visionary records.
She ran the stairs with a knowledge that made me think she'd done so many times. He gave chase, but stopped when she made it inside. He yelled.
"I warned you!"
Then the man stalked off passed Caleb and I without another word. He looked familiar, but I didn't know who he was. I was confused as to what we were seeing. Then we heard the girl crying. If she couldn't see us, then it didn't matter if we went to see her, right?
We climbed the steps and once we reached the threshold, we stopped. She was lying on the floor, crying and rubbing at her arms and stomach. She was in such agony, but it was more than just physical. It looked like she was in withdrawal.
She finally got up and went to the wall. She took the feather, dipped it into the inkwell and began to write her small, dainty words.
She was the Visionary.
But they had told me the previous Visionary hadn't been imprinted with anyone, that it was a weakness and a luxury that the Visionary couldn't afford. So we watched her silently, Caleb held my waist tight as if to save me at any moment. Then we were quickly jerked from that vision to another.
It was the girl again, the Visionary. She was at the table with the council members and looked very put together and regal. Once again, no one saw us, even though we sorely stood out in our clothes in the room full of well dressed people. From the look of their clothes, this was long ago.
The girls' eyes stayed locked onto something behind us as a council member stood and made an announcement.
I looked back and saw nothing, but just as I was about to turn I saw the boy. He was staring back at her with the same wistful expression. I looked between the two and tried to piece it together. When the man who was speaking banged his goblet on the table, she jolted upright again and looked at him. She raised her glass as everyone else was already doing and toasted to long life and prosperity.But the girl just seemed dead inside.
Then that vision flashed to another. She was inching her way down a dark hallway. It winded and twisted and I remembered it as being the way to the cells. I cringed into Caleb's side and watched as she crept slowly passed a sleeping guard, leaning back against the wall.
A man spoke from one of the cells, "Ashlyn."
She gasped happily and ran to him, but before she reached him, the guard grabbed her from behind. The man in the cell and her reached their fingers, for just one touch…but it was no use. She was so small and tiny and though I could feel her power radiate from her, she was helpless in her fear and anguish.
The man hissed and jerked back before grabbing her sleeved arm and slinging her toward the doorway. I saw the offense mark across her neck and she screamed in agony before crumpling to the floor. The agony was for her would-be significant.
The knowledge of what was going on hit me all at once. She was the Visionary. She had been known as the Visionary since she was seventeen. She'd always known the boy, or man I should say, Richard from the reunifications, but had never spoken to him. When she was twenty three, she just seemed to be so taken by him, so drawn and he in turn couldn’t keep his eyes off of her all night. They eventually found a second to speak in the hallway and right as he was about to brush a curl from her face, the man who had chased her in the vision was there.
He was none too happy and barked for the boy to go. He bowed to Ashlyn and went, but had no intentions of staying away. The man came into the light of the lantern and I caught my breath to the resemblance of Donald and Sikes to that man. He growled at the girl.
"Did I or did I not forbid you to touch any man?"
"I am the Visionary, yet you let me do nothing of what I'm supposed to do. You don’t let me share my visions, you don't let me speak to anyone. It's like I'm an ornament instead of a person."